The following disclosure relates to energy management, and more particularly to energy management of household consumer appliances, as well as other energy consuming devices and/or home energy systems found in the home. The present disclosure finds particular application to coupling a home energy management system (HEM)/home energy gateway (BEG) with coordinate-based location devices that will allow the HEM/HEG to track the home member's location based on time and control home devices and/or appliances accordingly.
Many utilities are currently experiencing a shortage of electric generating capacity due to increasing consumer demand for electricity. Currently utilities charge a flat rate, but with increasing cost of fuel prices and high energy usage at certain parts of the day, utilities have to buy more energy to supply customers during peak demand, which causes prices to rise during these times. If peak demand can be lowered, then a potential huge cost savings can be achieved and the peak load that the utility has to accommodate is lessened. In order to reduce high peak power demand, many utilities have instituted time of use (TOU) metering and rates which include higher rates for energy usage during on-peak times and lower rates for energy usage during off-peak times. As a result, consumers are provided with an incentive to use electricity at off-peak times rather than on-peak times and to reduce overall energy consumption of devices at all times.
Home Energy Management (HEM) systems have been developed and described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/892,130, fully incorporated by reference herein, that can automatically operate and disable power consuming devices in a designated home network. The energy management systems include a central controller that is in communication with each of the power consuming devices and provide a homeowner the means to monitor and manage their energy consumption through a combination of behavior modification and programmed control logic. Active and real time communication of energy costs of power consuming devices to the consumer enables informed choices of operating the power consuming functions of the appliance. One type of HEM is in the form of a special custom configured computer with an integrated display, which communicates to devices in the home and stores data, and also has simple algorithms to enable energy reduction. This type of device may include a keypad for data entry or the display may be touch screen. This device is either integrated in a unitary housing, or if the display is not in the same housing, the display and computer are otherwise connected/associated to work as a single unit. A second HEM is in the form of a low cost router/gateway device in a home that collects information from devices within the home and sends it to a remote server and in return receives control commands from the remote server and transmits the commands to energy consuming devices in the home. As with the first, this HEM may be custom configured including a computer and integrated or otherwise connected/associated display (and keypad if used) designated as a single unit.
Additionally, a Home Energy Gateway (HEG) system has been developed as a premise data management system that is significantly smaller, cheaper, and consumes less power, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/983,425, fully incorporated herein by reference. The HEG has the capability of operating over multiple communication networks which each use different formats, protocols, and bandwidths. This allows the HEG to acquire and manipulate (e.g. reformat) data of one communication network (e.g., that which monitors/controls the home appliances) and to supply that manipulated data to another communication network (e.g. to the consumer electronics network, such as to a home computer, smart phone, web-enabled TV, etc.), even though these networks are not generally compatible.
To take advantage of the lower cost of electricity during off-peak times, the HEM/HEG systems are designed automatically operate power consuming devices during off-peak hours in order to reduce consumer's electric bills and also to reduce the load on generating plants during on-peak hours. Active and real time communication of energy costs of devices to the consumer enables informed choices of operating the power consuming functions of the devices. Although these systems are capable of being run automatically according to demand period, a user may choose to override the system and run a device normally, or delay the operation of the system for a particular period of time.
The HEM/HEG is designed to operate home network power consuming devices and provide homeowners with power and cost saving information. It would be advantageous, however, to enable operation of the home network in view of the locations of home network members, such as when such members are at home or away from the home.
Navigation systems, such as global positioning systems (GPS), vehicle compass, distance sensors, and other navigation systems are being included in devices such as vehicles, cellular telephones, and other portable devices, to provide navigation and location information-based information to users. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are widely used as space-based global navigation systems that provide reliable location and time information in all weather and at all times anywhere on earth.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to utilize the positioning capability of GPS and other navigation devices to provide an HEM/HEG with the positional information of home network members to allow an HEM/HEG to control the home network devices based on the member's location.